This is the fourth article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II | part III]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part IV today, we focus on 
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Member since:2006-07-01
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-09-21
True. Although KDE will let you move or resize a window with your mouse anywhere on that window by holding a key (Alt or the Windows key) and dragging the mouse with left or right click. It's incredibly convenient. The lack of that drives me nuts in other environments/OSes.
Also toolbar icons default to icons+text in gnome and the upcoming kde4.0, so the buttons are no longer fiddly.
Member since:2005-07-06
that alt+mouse is a feature of the X server, not kde iirc.
hmm, i kinda recall a function in windows that allows one to move the window with the arrow keys. am i getting my desktops mixed up?
also, if one install powerpro on windows (should even work in vista) one get a lot of extra window control features, for free!
btw, i wonder what window control hotkeys thom is missing in windows. honestly, not looking to start a flame.
Edited 2007-11-08 00:33
Member since:2005-07-06
The ideal - IMHO - would be a window manager with the ability to use the various Adobe keyboard shortcuts for resizing windows (hold Ctrl to resize proportionally, hold Alt to resize in/out from the window's center, and ctrl-alt resize to combine the two).
Member since:2005-07-06
Which begs the question: why doesn't that happen more?
Probably because a (right click) context menu is not intuitive to inexperienced users. If it's not visible, it doesn't exist.
A visible menu bar may not be the most ergonomic, but anyone (with good sight) can find it and read what the thing does.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2007-01-20
Member since:
2005-07-01
Which begs the question: why doesn't that happen more? Every GUI I use seems to blithely ignore Fitt's law and it's descendants, giving me thin strips floating in the middle of the screen to target, be they the resize bars along the edge of a window or frame, or the items in a menu - many's the time I've been caught out by the wrong sub-menu popping up as I search for the menu item I really want. Then there's those fiddly icons, small toolbar buttons and the save action within mere pixels of the save as... action.
And all this applies universally to Windows, Linux, Mac and pretty much everything else. For an over-used term, Fitt's law seems to be sadly under-used.